I really don't know where the time goes these days!!!! Time just seem to just fly by and there never seems enough hours in the day!
It has been a tough few months, not so much with the animals, but the family! My mum has been in hospital since April, at times it was touch and go, but thankfully she is a real fighter and hopefully she will back home today (fingers crossed). And we had some very sad news last week, a very special lady sadly lost her brave fight against cancer, we are all in shock and totally devastated.
On the alpaca front its been fairly quite, they have been getting over the hard year we had last year with all the rain etc, etc. All are doing well, with the exception of one of our weanlings from last year, sadly we made the hard decision to have to put to sleep last week :(
She was a lovely little suri girl, very friendly (sometimes I did wonder if something wasn't quite right, as for a suri - from my experience anyway, she was very quite and laid back) back during the winter she did drop weight so she was having additional feed and had a rug on to keep her warm and DRY!!
About a month ago she had what seem like a colic attach, classic rolling around, ears down and looking in pain, so I spoke to the Vet and he gave me some pain relief, which seemed to work quite quickly and she was back to her normal self (I just put it down to change of paddock and rich grass)
Then last Friday around 6ish I notice she looked much the same, she had seemed fine all day with nothing out of the ordinary, but was now rolling a lot then lying with her legs out to the side, I watched her for a bit and then went out to her, it was raining and she was on her side and moaning, she never attempted to get up, so I called the Vet. The vet arrived within 30 mins, on checking her eyes, gums and then her heart she told me she had a heart murmur, this could be due to stress on her body from the pain but she feared something worst, her concern was a twisted gut! Poor thing was now in so much pain, after considering the options I sadly made the very hard decision to have her put to sleep. After she was finally asleep and out of pain, the Vet felt her fears were confirmed (its wasn't a very nice experience so I am not going into details) she would never had made the long journey for an operation and it would have put her under so much stress and I am relieved to be told I did make the right decision and I am glad the little girl was now out of pain.
Now the unhappy and sad bits are out of the way, here's the good news :)
Over the weekend we have had two lovely cria born, the first was quite a surprise! At 6am on Saturday morning I went out to let the chickens out and cast a quick eye over the girls, who as usual were all sitting around up at the top of the field, so no signs of any action, I came back in and thought I would have a bit of a lazy start and went back to bed with a nice cup of tea and to have a little snooze (hubby had gone off to golf) I didn't look back out at the girls until around 7.45am as really didn't expect any action that early in the day. But to my total surprise, I couldn't believe my eyes! down in the long grass by the barn I could see a small bump which look suspiciously like a small cria, I watch for a few seconds, but there was no movement!! I quickly threw on some clothes and walked out, fearing the worst, but as I got close up popped the head and then it jumped to its feet quick as a flash and was off with its Mum, after the initial shock I felt such relief.
She was completely dry, had already found the milk bar and the placenta was down in the grass. Wow that was a quick sneaky one, it must have happen not long after I had let the chickens out.
So here she is, (born at 330 days) this photo was literally minutes after I had first noticed her.
It has been a tough few months, not so much with the animals, but the family! My mum has been in hospital since April, at times it was touch and go, but thankfully she is a real fighter and hopefully she will back home today (fingers crossed). And we had some very sad news last week, a very special lady sadly lost her brave fight against cancer, we are all in shock and totally devastated.
On the alpaca front its been fairly quite, they have been getting over the hard year we had last year with all the rain etc, etc. All are doing well, with the exception of one of our weanlings from last year, sadly we made the hard decision to have to put to sleep last week :(
She was a lovely little suri girl, very friendly (sometimes I did wonder if something wasn't quite right, as for a suri - from my experience anyway, she was very quite and laid back) back during the winter she did drop weight so she was having additional feed and had a rug on to keep her warm and DRY!!
About a month ago she had what seem like a colic attach, classic rolling around, ears down and looking in pain, so I spoke to the Vet and he gave me some pain relief, which seemed to work quite quickly and she was back to her normal self (I just put it down to change of paddock and rich grass)
Then last Friday around 6ish I notice she looked much the same, she had seemed fine all day with nothing out of the ordinary, but was now rolling a lot then lying with her legs out to the side, I watched her for a bit and then went out to her, it was raining and she was on her side and moaning, she never attempted to get up, so I called the Vet. The vet arrived within 30 mins, on checking her eyes, gums and then her heart she told me she had a heart murmur, this could be due to stress on her body from the pain but she feared something worst, her concern was a twisted gut! Poor thing was now in so much pain, after considering the options I sadly made the very hard decision to have her put to sleep. After she was finally asleep and out of pain, the Vet felt her fears were confirmed (its wasn't a very nice experience so I am not going into details) she would never had made the long journey for an operation and it would have put her under so much stress and I am relieved to be told I did make the right decision and I am glad the little girl was now out of pain.
Now the unhappy and sad bits are out of the way, here's the good news :)
Over the weekend we have had two lovely cria born, the first was quite a surprise! At 6am on Saturday morning I went out to let the chickens out and cast a quick eye over the girls, who as usual were all sitting around up at the top of the field, so no signs of any action, I came back in and thought I would have a bit of a lazy start and went back to bed with a nice cup of tea and to have a little snooze (hubby had gone off to golf) I didn't look back out at the girls until around 7.45am as really didn't expect any action that early in the day. But to my total surprise, I couldn't believe my eyes! down in the long grass by the barn I could see a small bump which look suspiciously like a small cria, I watch for a few seconds, but there was no movement!! I quickly threw on some clothes and walked out, fearing the worst, but as I got close up popped the head and then it jumped to its feet quick as a flash and was off with its Mum, after the initial shock I felt such relief.
She was completely dry, had already found the milk bar and the placenta was down in the grass. Wow that was a quick sneaky one, it must have happen not long after I had let the chickens out.
So here she is, (born at 330 days) this photo was literally minutes after I had first noticed her.
She is a beautiful, strong, healthy girl and as a special tribute to the special lady I mentioned, who sadly lost her fight against cancer we have called her Jeanie.
So that was Saturday, so Sunday I got up and wandered out to the girls to check all was well and check on little Jeanie who was happily enjoying the early morning sunshine. No signs of any impending births, all well so I went back in for some breakfast (which I didn't get!!) put the kettle on, put the toast in, I just happened to look out of the window and I could see sticking out of one of the Suri girls what looked like to feet! Out I go and yes within half hour there on the ground was a lovely little boy, very unusual colour and not quite what we were expecting from this pure white mum, but he is gorgeous, although he born at 340 days, he seems a slower than Jeanie, but he is fine, happily finding the milk bar and has now made friends with little Jeanie, my sister has called him Merlin.
And here are the two new friends yesterday evening enjoying the lovely sunshine together.
So as I write this I have one eye out of the window to see if we are going to have three in a row????? will let you know :)
3 comments:
Very sorry to hear your sad news - every best wish to your Mum.
But very happy to read the good news - what a lovely pair of cria! Congratulations!
Good to catch up with your news both sad and happy. Your crias look delightful...this year I'm enjoying everyone else's crias because it looks as though we will have no tiny feet at La Grand-Mere this year!
Thank you Rosemary for your best wishes, she is home now so fingers crossed she can cope.
Thank Judi, sorry you are not having any tiny feet this year, maybe next? its nice you can keep up to date with everyone's else's new arrivels :) x
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